New York magazine is examining the past work of one of its writers who has been accused of plagiarism after publishing at least three stories with striking similarities to other published work.
Ross Barkan, who is a contract writer for the magazine, first attracted critical scrutiny when one of his stories earlier this week on the conservative influencer Ben Shapiro appeared to copy another piece on Shapiro published days before in The Washington Post.
When this was pointed out on social media, the magazine updated Barkan’s story to directly quote the Post writer, Drew Harwell, whose opening paragraphs Barkan lifted nearly wholesale.
After this, NPR found at least two other instances in which Barkan apparently pulled partial paragraphs from other stories that appeared in the publications the Intercept and Compact Magazine.
The paragraphs in question are summarizing the historical background or context of the stories, with some instances containing the same 30 words in a row, or near identical passages with a word or phrase slightly tweaked.
“We are conducting a review of the writer’s prior work,” New York magazine spokesperson Lauren Starke told NPR.
Matthew Schmitz, the editor of Compact Magazine, wrote on X condemning what he described as Barkan’s “heavily plagiarized” article, saying he has called on the magazine to address the pilfered sections.
Barkan did not deny relying on other writers’ work. Instead, he defended his methods by arguing that he included a hyperlink to the pieces that inspired his own, or named the author whose words he replicated in his own writing.
“I am allowed, as a columnist building on *his* reporting, to cite facts. Especially when he’s credited,” Barkan wrote on X about writer Juan David Rojas, whose story Barkan copied in several instances in one of his own pieces.
It is not uncommon for journalists writing about the same subject to use comparable turns of phrase, or to summarize events similarly. But when significant chunks of someone’s writing appears word-for-word without quotation marks, it is generally considered plagiarism, according to Edward Wasserman, a professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.
“This kind of laziness is a real embarrassment to the publication,” Wasserman said of Barkan. “You need to always acknowledge the debt that you owe to an originating source, and when you’re taking from someone else and not making it plain to the reader, you’ve got a real problem.”
In an emailed statement, Barkan said, “this is all quite ridiculous.” He said inserting hyperlinks in his columns to writers he was pulling from, and, in the case of the Compact Magazine piece, naming the writer, was enough acknowledgement that he was leaning on another journalist’s reporting.
“I have written hundreds upon hundreds of columns, essays, and pieces of journalism in my career,” Barkan said. “I stand by my record.”
In 2018, Barkan, 36, ran for a New York state senate seat and lost in the Democratic primary.
Since then, he has been a remarkably prolific writer.
In addition to being a contributor to New York magazine, he also writes for Crain’s New York, The New York Times and other publications.
Last year, he published two books, a novel and a book on political disorder.
He has a forthcoming book, due out in October, on the rise of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
And last month, he published a novel entitled “Colossus.” Its description says its protagonist is a man who “has it all,” including a life that “gleams with virtue and success.” But his past comes to haunt him and “the once-sturdy walls of his world begin to fall.”
